A number of multi-hop communication schemes of adding a relay station in existing base station-based communication systems have been provided to expand the coverage of the communication systems and improve the communication quality. A multi-hop communication scheme may provide for expansion of the base station coverage, simplicity of network configuration and installation, and improvement of the communication quality. Compared to existing systems, a cellular-based multi-hop communication system involves multi-hops between a user terminal and a base station, such as a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) and a wireless sensor network (WSN). Generally, the cellular-based multi-hop communication system constitutes a tree-structured topology based on the base station.
A topology management may become an important issue in a multi-hop communication. For example, in a MANET, all the nodes joining the network may perform multi-hop communication through mutual cooperation. Therefore, management concerning forming, joining, leaving, partitioning, etc., of the topology may become important. Likewise, a topology management may become an issue in cellular-based multi-hop communication systems. The cellular-based multi-hop communication systems may improve the service quality associated with real-time services through the topology management. Accordingly, there is an increasing diversified need for a topology management in a multi-hop communication system.